Lewinsky's testimony

Phones, moans and breaking up: Lewinsky's testimony

On sex:
According to Ms Lewinsky, she and the president had 10 sexual encounters, eight while she worked at the White House and two thereafter. The sexual encounters generally occurred in or near the private study off the Oval Office - most often in the windowless hallway outside the study. During many of their sexual encounters, the President stood leaning against the doorway of the bathroom across from the study, which, he told Ms Lewinsky, eased his sore back.

Ms Lewinsky testified that her physical relationship with the president included oral sex but not sexual intercourse. According to Ms Lewinsky, she performed oral sex on the President but he never performed oral sex on her.

Initially, according to Ms Lewinsky, the President would not let her perform oral sex to completion. In Ms Lewinsky's understanding, his refusal was related to "trust and not knowing me well enough." During their last two sexual encounters, both in 1997, he did ejaculate.

According to Ms Lewinsky, she performed oral sex on the President on nine occasions. On all nine of those occasions, the President fondled and kissed her bare breasts. He touched her genitals, both through her underwear and directly, bringing her to orgasm on two occasions.

On one occasion, the President inserted a cigar into her vagina. On another occasion, she and the President had brief genital-to-genital contact.

On love:
"I never expected to fall in love with the President. I was surprised that I did."

They were physically affectionate: "A lot of hugging, holding hands sometimes. He always used to push the hair out of my face."

She called him "Handsome"; on occasion, he called her "Sweetie," "Baby," or sometimes "Dear."

He told her that he enjoyed talking to her - she recalled his saying that the two of them were "emotive and full of fire," and she made him feel young. He said he wished he could spend more time with her.

On the phone:
Ms Lewinsky testified that she and the President "enjoyed talking to each other and being with each other." In her recollection, "We would tell jokes. We would talk about our childhoods. Talk about current events. I was always giving him my stupid ideas about what I thought should be done in the administration or different views on things."

One of Ms Lewinsky's friends testified that, in her understanding, "[The President] would talk about his childhood and growing up, and [Ms Lewinsky] would relay stories about her childhood and growing up. I guess normal conversations that you would have with someone that you're getting to know."

The longer conversations often occurred after their sexual contact. Ms Lewinsky testified: "[W]hen I was working there [at the White House]... we'd start in the back [in or near the private study] and we'd talk and that was where we were physically intimate, and we'd usually end up, kind of the pillow talk of it, I guess... sitting in the Oval Office..." During several meetings when they were not sexually intimate, they talked in the Oval Office or in the area of the study.

On phone sex:
We talked about everything under the sun." On 10 to 15 occasions, Ms Lewinsky and the president had phone sex. After phone sex late one night, the president fell asleep mid-conversation.

On gifts:
In a draft note to the president in December 1997, Ms Lewinsky wrote that she was "very particular about presents and could never give them to anyone else - they were all bought with you in mind." Many of the 30 or so gifts that she gave the President reflected his interests in history, antiques, cigars, and frogs.

Ms Lewinsky gave him, among other things, six neckties, an antique paperweight showing the White House, a silver tabletop holder for cigars or cigarettes, a pair of sunglasses, a casual shirt, a mug emblazoned "Santa Monica," a frog figurine, a letter opener depicting a frog, several novels, a humorous book of quotations, and several antique books.

Among the president's gifts to Ms Lewinsky were a hat pin, two brooches, a blanket, a marble bear figurine, and a special edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Ms Lewinsky construed it as a sign of affection when the President wore a necktie or other item of clothing she had given him.

She testified: "I used to say to him that 'I like it when you wear my ties because then I know I'm close to your heart.' So - literally and figuratively." The President was aware of her reaction, according to Ms Lewinsky, and he would sometimes wear one of the items to reassure her - occasionally on the day they were scheduled to meet or the day after they had met in person or talked by telephone. The President would sometimes say to her, "Did you see I wore your tie the other day?"

On keeping quiet:

"He had told me... that he was usually around on the weekends and that it was okay to come see him on the weekends. So he would call and we would arrange either to bump into each other in the hall or that I would bring papers to the office."

Ms Lewinsky testified that, on December 28, 1997, "when I was getting my Christmas kiss" in the doorway to the study, the President was "looking out the window with his eyes wide open while he was kissing me and then I got mad because it wasn't very romantic." He responded, "Well, I was just looking to see to make sure no one was out there."

Fear of discovery constrained their sexual encounters in several respects, according to Ms Lewinsky. The President ordinarily kept the door between the private hallway and the Oval Office several inches ajar during their encounters, both so that he could hear if anyone approached and so that anyone who did approach would be less likely to suspect impropriety.

During their sexual encounters, Ms Lewinsky testified, "[W]e were both aware of the volume and sometimes... I bit my hand - so that I wouldn't make any noise." On one occasion, according to Ms Lewinsky, the President put his hand over her mouth during a sexual encounter to keep her quiet. Concerned that they might be interrupted abruptly, according to Ms Lewinsky, the two of them never fully undressed.

On breaking up:

According to Ms Lewinsky, the President explained that they had to end their intimate relationship. Earlier in his marriage, he told her, he had had hundreds of affairs; but since turning 40, he had made a concerted effort to be faithful. He said he was attracted to Ms Lewinsky, considered her a great person, and hoped they would remain friends.

He pointed out that he could do a great deal for her. The situation, he stressed, was not Ms Lewinsky's fault. Ms Lewinsky, weeping, tried to persuade the President not to end the sexual relationship, but he was unyielding, then and subsequently. Although she and the President kissed and hugged thereafter, according to Ms Lewinsky, the sexual relationship was over.

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About this article

Phones, moans and breaking up: Lewinsky's testimony

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 20.51 EDT on Thursday 10 September 1998.
It was last modified at 06.18 EDT on Saturday 4 October 2014.
It was first published at 20.51 EST on Tuesday 29 December 1998.